Goal Check

To close out 2020 I decided to look back at the goals I had set for this year to see how I did. 

My goals for 2020:

• Publish a blog post every weekday
• I met this goal. Many of those posts were picture heavy, but with so many cute subjects, that can't really be helped.
• Read at least 52 books
• I intentionally read fewer books than last year, but at the end of November I realized I had read 89 books. And being so close to 100 books was too hard to ignore, so I pushed and read 100 books. I'm actually only 25 minutes away from the end of book 101, but with 26 minutes left in the year, I'm going to prioritize writing this post over finishing my book. I guess it'll be my first book done in 2021.
• Deepen my scripture study and preparation to teach the Come, Follow Me lessons at home and at church
• I really did deepen my study, but it's because in March I became the head teacher for church at home. I'm not sure what this goal would have looked like if I was preparing to teach people other than my children.
• Exercise at least three times per week
• This did not happen. I wish it had, but given the nature of this year, some things had to go. I did exercise a decent amount during the summer, but once school started the workout time dried up.
• Sleep more than I did in 2019 (In theory this one should be easy since I didn't sleep much last year, but sleep is never easy at our house.)
• Hahahahahaha! Nope. 
• Practice the piano at least three times per week
• I aced this one all the way up until quarantine started, then it flipped and became a total fail. But, as with exercise, some things had to go this year. I want to find a way to add this back in, I haven't figured out how yet though.

My big goal for 2021? Keep everyone at my house alive and basically sane. 

Christmas Morning

Christmas Dinner Highlights

When the kids found out what our planned Christmas dinner was, some of them commented that it was very similar to Thanksgiving dinner. Bryan and I agreed, but we like all those foods and we didn't want to take them off the menu. We did try to add some variation though.

Bryan made a melt-in-your-mouth standing rib roast. It was amazing.

Using the drippings of the roast, Bryan made a Yorkshire Pudding. It was delicious and Topher's favorite part of the meal.

We used fancy disposable dishes that upped the class of the meal.

I threw together this spinach salad. I think I ate most of it myself, but it tasted good, so that's okay.

Finally, instead of our usual pumpkin pie, Bryan made an English Trifle. We all loved it.

Christmas Sunday Best

 

Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful

During the last nine months my calling at church as choir director has been essentially on hold. Then, shortly before Thanksgiving, I was asked to put together a virtual choir number. This would be a large undertaking and I knew it depended more on Bryan's willingness to edit it together than on mine to gather in the submissions. He said yes and the music chair and I got to work contacting people in our congregation who had sung with the choir in the past to see if they would be interested in participating. Not everyone said yes, but to those that did we sent an email with an instructional video, an accompaniment video of me directing, and a list of specific instructions. We counted up all those that had said yes and estimated we would have between twenty-one and thirty-two participants. We set a deadline for the videos to be sent in to give Bryan enough time to put it together.

The weekend of the deadline brought texts, phone calls, and emails explaining that people were either too busy, too anxious, or too stressed learning their part. We found a few fixes and extended the deadline. Then we extended it again. The song would be shown on Sunday December 20 and by the evening of December 17 we had, not including our family, eight submissions.

I panicked and sent one more email asking people to help, letting them know that we needed their voices.

We didn't receive any more videos.

On the morning of Saturday December 19 we asked Phoebe and Sophie to put on church dresses and let us record them singing the soprano part, then Bryan recorded himself singing both the tenor and the bass parts. We already had recordings of me singing the soprano and the alto lines. That brought us up to fourteen vocal parts and twelve videos, since we wouldn't be using anyone's face twice.

Bryan spent nearly the entire day and most of the night editing the sound and video. The first time he layered the audio parts on top of each other and played it for me I cried because it was awful. I had faith in his abilities, but the voices and the timing were all so different I didn't know how he would make it work. After several hours of tinkering and tweaking and calling me down to the basement to listen and give feedback, he had a final version. As he played it for me I cried again, but this time because it was so beautiful. Is it perfect? No, but it is certainly more than the sum of its parts. He is a wizard. Seriously.

With the permission of the participants, I share our virtual ward choir's rendition of Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful. The accompaniment comes straight from churchofjesuschrist.org, we have permission to use it.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Jammies

 Merry Christmas from all of us! Also, the first picture feels accurate for this year.

Far Away Family

One tender mercy of the pandemic has been getting to connect with far away family using digital means. This Sunday we were able to participate in the family Christmas party for Bryan's mom's side. We loved it so much! It was wonderful to spend time with them, even though we weren't together in person. Bryan snapped this picture of his grandma, aunt, and uncle, with lots of other family members in little pictures up on top.

Whatchya' Readin'?

All the Snow

We had a major snowstorm last week. More snow fell in about a twelve hour period than fell during the entire last winter. The forecast predicted anywhere from 12" to 30" of snow. We ended up getting at least a foot. 

The kids were so excited about the snow, especially Topher. He wanted to go out in it as soon as it started to fall. He exhibited great two-year-old patience and waited an entire day.

On Thursday I hauled the winter clothes back out (since I had quickly put them away from our recent snow day) and we spent at least thirty minutes bundling up. Bryan and Peter joined us this time, so it was a much more fun adventure. Plus, the kids were in awe of Bryan's snowball-throwing ability.

Topher dropped down almost immediately for a snow angel.

Cooper got to work on a snow fort while Sophie attempted a snowman.

She did take time for some angels of her own.

Phoebe let Topher help with her snowman. No, she's not wearing snow pants, but some should be here on Wednesday.

Look, a rare sighting of a Bryan in the wild.

Topher's gloves, which fit, kept coming off. Then, right before he and I came inside to start some hot chocolate, I noticed that he was pulling them off at least some of the time so he could feel the snow.

This is a picture I took of my foot in an attempt to show how deep the snow was. I'm not sure if I was all the way through the snow or if more was packed under me.

Bryan managed to catch all six of us from his vantage point on the sidewalk. Peter was borrowing Bryan's snow boots (we've held off on buying Peter his own boots until his feet mostly stop growing, and I suspect we're nearly there, because man-size snow boots are expensive) since it was his turn to shovel the walk, so Bryan was staying safe on mostly dry ground in his regular shoes. But he was still throwing snow balls that reached the middle of the street.

It was a fun day.

Art Supplies

I noticed Topher was at the window today, his lips smack against the glass, walking back and forth and going up and down on his toes, leaving a trail of saliva in his wake. I asked, "What are you doing buddy?"

He pulled his mouth away enough to answer, "I'm makin' a rollercoaster."

And then he went right back to his task. It was both adorable and super gross.

Hey Mr. DJ

Topher: Hey Google! Play Phineas and Ferb music!

Google: Okay, playing Notorious B.I.G. on YouTube Music.

Me: Cancel! Cancel! Hey Google, cancel!!!

Princess Academy

 Sometimes Sophie does school as a princess, because why not?

Cookie Baking: A Full Contact Sport

 

Big Shoes to Fill

 

Polar Bear, Polar Bear

Part of Topher's naptime/bedtime routine is reading three books. We pick out the three books before bedtime on Sunday and read them twice each day for the next seven days, then pick out a new batch the following Sunday. It appears Topher has a knack for memorization because he's committed several of the books to memory. Here is his two-and-a-half-year-old variation of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle.

A key to understanding Topher: his Ls sound like Ws and his Rs aren't crisp yet, so leopard will sound like wepode.

The Snowy Day

We had our first snow of the year yesterday. The kids grew increasingly more excited as we watched it fall throughout the day. They were anxious to get outside. I was not at all excited about that prospect, but when Topher woke up from his nap I started gathering the snow gear from various boxes in the basement. After we were bundled, we braved the out of doors.

Peter and Bryan opted to stay inside.

The others had a ball.

Topher, who can't say his s-blends, kept exclaiming variations of "I love the 'no!" and "'No is so fun!"